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Matt Slocum

Blixt, Jimenez and Lyle share early Masters edge

The trio share the early lead at the 78th Masters, each standing three-under par at Augusta National.

SWEDEN’S JONAS BLIXT, making his Masters debut, Britain’s Sandy Lyle and Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez shared the early lead Thursday at the 78th Masters, each standing three-under par at Augusta National.

Blixt, who could become the first Swedish man to win a major golf title, opened with two pars and birdied the third before a bogey at the par-3 fourth.

Birdies followed at the fifth and par-3 sixth before the Swede took a bogey at the seventh, but he responded with birdies at the the par-5 eighth and par-4 ninth.

Another birdie at the par-5 13th lifted Blixt, who was playing alongisde two-time Masters winner Ben Crenshaw and South Korea’s Yang Yong-Eun, to four-under, but a bogey at the par-5 15th dropped him back into a share of the lead.

No first-time player has won the Masters since Fuzzy Zoeller in 1979.

Jimenez birdied the par-5 second and added back-to-back birdies at six and seven to join Blixt on three-under.

Americans Fred Couples, Bill Haas and Kevin Stadler shared third on two-under.

- © AFP, 2014

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